


Donuts

by Deannie



Series: Moments [5]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Community: hc_bingo, Gen, Iron Man 2, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-17
Updated: 2015-11-17
Packaged: 2018-05-02 02:07:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5229785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deannie/pseuds/Deannie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five minutes ago, Tony Stark had simply been waiting to die. Now he was pissed off enough to live, just to spite a man with an eyepatch who intimated that he might be wrong.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Donuts

**Author's Note:**

> For the hc_bingo prompt "stalkers".

Randy's Donuts wasn't really the setting Natasha had pictured when she thought of how this confrontation would go. 

“Doesn’t look like it’s going to be an easy fix,” Nick said sadly, staring across the table at a man not more than a few days from death and almost eerily resigned to it. She’d seen the complete shock on Tony Stark’s face the night before, as if he’d finally realized he couldn’t genius his way out of this one. 

Tony was looking at her now, not Fury, betrayal thick in his gaze. He answered Nick’s statement with a cold, clear defeat. 

“Trust me, I know. I’m good at this stuff.” 

Natasha watched as Stark sat straighter, his eyes narrowing in thought as the lithium dioxide did its job. 

“I’ve been looking for a suitable replacement for palladium. I’ve tried every combination, every permutation, of every known element.” 

Nick got that look on his face. The one that said he didn’t have the answer but he was looking at the person who should. “Well I’m here to tell you, you haven’t tried them all.” 

“What do you mean?” Stark asked. Natasha was unsurprised to hear the competitive, arrogant anger in his voice. Nick knew how to bring people around—five minutes ago, Tony Stark had simply been waiting to die. Now he was pissed off enough to live, just to spite a man with an eyepatch who intimated that he might be wrong. 

“Come with me and find out,” Nick said, sliding out of the booth and standing up before he leveled another stare at Tony. “Might want to take off the suit, though,” he suggested. “You don’t want to burn through that jolt Agent Romanoff just gave you too quickly.” 

Tony let him leave, his eyes fixing on Natasha. She felt… surprisingly uncomfortable. He was obviously feeling betrayed. And hurt. Possibly disappointed. But it was nothing she hadn’t seen before—he wasn’t the first special package she’d gone undercover to shadow and protect and he wasn’t the first to lash out when she told him who she really was. 

“Agent Romanoff, huh?” he repeated, derision in his tone. “Well, as stalkers go, I’ve had worse.” 

She didn’t blink, kept her own strange feeling of disappointment to herself. In a different world, she might even like Tony Stark. A little. She slid out of the booth herself, standing aside to give him room to get up. “I brought the suitcase, if you’d like to shed your skin.” 

She knew it was the wrong turn of phrase even as it came out of her mouth. 

“‘Shed my skin.’ Funny you should put it that way.” He stood unevenly, finding his balance after a long moment. She didn’t reach out to steady him—he did still have repulsors attached to his hands and she wasn’t entirely sure he was sober enough to stop himself from using them. “Snakes do that, right?” 

Stark wasn’t subtle, she’d give him that. The words came from her mouth before she could stop them. “You’re a valuable commodity, Mr. Stark. But Director Fury felt you would respond badly to a more direct approach.” 

He reached around clumsily to disengage the manual releases on the suit. “Yeah. Much better to send someone in to seduce me and spy on me.” The suit began to come off in haphazard pieces, and he looked at her with suspicion. “Exactly how much access did you help yourself to, by the way?” 

“No more than I needed,” she replied. The random clangs as the bits of suit hit the concrete floor were too much for her, all of a sudden. She stepped forward without permission and started to help. 

“Hey, no!” He jerked away from her and slammed into the side of the booth, sliding to the ground. “You don’t get to do that.” He pulled himself to his feet, shedding the last of his armor. It left him sweating and small and sort of pathetic. “Seriously, am I going to have to start looking for Iron Man clones with little eagles on them?” 

“We’re not interested in your designs, Mr. Stark,” she told him bluntly. She packed the armor into its padded suitcase and turned to face him, maneuvering the 200-pound case with an ease that caused his eyes to widen in surprise. “Please believe me when I tell you we only want to help you, Tony.” 

He looked at her for a long moment, something in his gaze softening, as if he saw the truth of her statement. “And stalk me,” he said finally, blithe unconcern etched painstakingly into the words. 

She grinned and turned toward the exit, saving him face. 

“And stalk you,” she agreed. 

She left him standing in the donut shop and headed to Nick’s SUV, stowing the armor case in the back. She climbed into the second row of seats and was unsurprised to find Stark already sitting next to her. 

“Seriously, though,” he said conversationally, as if nothing had happened. “Did you like the party?” 

Natasha smiled. “Maybe not the way you want people to remember you,” she said gently. 

Nick got into the driver’s seat and slammed the door. “All right, boys and girls,” he announced. “Are we ready to get going?” 

“Lead on,” Tony said, waving his hand at the front seat. He watched her for another uncomfortable minute, as Nick pulled out and the rest of the SHIELD team moved in to clean up the scene behind them. 

“I guess I’ll just have to live to see another birthday, then,” he said finally. He wagged a finger at her. “But don’t think you’re getting invited to the next party.” 

“I’m not sure I could stand the excitement, Mr. Stark,” she replied, as Nick headed for the Pacific Coast Highway. 

Though it would be fun to see what topped the near destruction of his own home. 

********  
the end


End file.
